SERMON 3iXVI. 367 desty in all our words and behaviour ; and thus it'signifies almost thesame with sobriety, and implies a restraint upen all the exces- sive and irregular appetites that human nature is subject to. Under these two heads I shall treat of purity briefly, and show under each of them how the light of nature, and how the gospel of Christ requires the practice of it. J. Temperance in eating and drinking may be included in this command of purity, for we can hardly suppose the apostle omitted so necessary a virtue, and it is not mentioned at all,, if it be not implied here. It is not beneath the doctrine of Christi- anity to condescend to give rules about the most common affairs of human life, even food and raiment. It Is a piece of impurity to imitate the swine, and to gorge ourselves beyond measure ; to give up ourselves to fulfil every luscious appetite, and every lux- urious inclination of the taste. An indulgence of this sort of vice, what infinite disorders doth it bringupon mankind ! If a man would readthe character of a drunkard painted in very bright and proper colours; and re- ceive the foulest ideas of it in the fairest oratory, he cannotfind a better description than Prov. xxiii. 29-32. Who hath woe? Who bath sorrow? Who bath contentions? Who halt babbling? Who bath wounds without cause? Who bath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixedwine. Look not therefore upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the .cup, when it moveth itself aright. Some men in our age well understand what Solomon here means. But at the last it biteth like a serpent, andstingeth like an adder. Thepleasurewill be attended with intolerable pain and mortal injury, when the excess of liquor shall work like so much venom poured into the veins, and cast thee into diseases as incurable as the biting of any serpent ; it will do thee more mischief than anadder with all his poison. There are many that have felt the words of Solomon true, when their voluptuous sins have been dreadfully recompen- sed with ruin to their soul andbody. But the inspired writer dwells upon the loathsome subject; andbids us mark the particular effects of it : Thine eyes shall be- hold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things; Prov. xxiii. 33. that is, says a learned paraphrasty upon the text, " thy thoughts'will not only grow confused, and all things appear to thee otherwise than they are ; but lustful and adulterous de- sires will be stirred up, which thou canst not rule, and thy mouth beingwithout a bridle, will break forth into unseemly, nay, filthy, scurrilous, or, perhaps, blasphemous language, without respect to Cod or man." Yea, thou shalt be saith thewis*man, as he that *,Bishop Patrick. VOL. r, B b
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